The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1887-08-18

| number more or less badly injured. The
train was composed of six sleeping cars, ak
day coaches and chair cars and three bag
gage cars 1t was carrying 96O passengers,
all excursionsts, and was bound for Ma
CARA Falls. The train had been made up all
along the line of the Toledo, Peoria Il West
ern road, and the excursionists hailed from
various points in Central Illinois, the bulk OF
them, however, coming from Peoria. Some
of the passengers came from Canton, from
Ell Paso. Washington and. in fact, oil sta
tions along the line from as far west as Bur
lington and Keokuk, Iowa. A special and
cheap rate had been made for the ex-
cursion, and all sorts of people took
/ advantage Of it When the train
drew out of Peoria ut 8 o'clock last
| evening. it was loaded to it's utmost
| capacity. Every berth in the six sleepers
was taken, and the day cars carried sixty
| people each. The train was SO heavy that
two engines were hitched to it, and when 1T
| passed this place it was an hour and a hai1
behind time. Chatsworth, the next station
east of here. is six miles of and the run
there was made in seven minutes, SO the ter
rible momentum of those fifteen coaches
and two heavy engines shooting through
| space at the rate of q mile a minute can be
understood. No stop was made at Chats
| worth, and on and on the heavy train with
it's living freight sped through the darkness
| of the night Three miles east OF Chats
| worth there is a little slough and where the
| railroad track crosses a run about ten feet
| deep and fifteen feet wide. Over this was
stretched an ordinary wooden trestle bridge,
and as the excursion train came laundering
| down on it what was the horror OF the en-
| gineer on the front engine when he saw that
| this bridge was afire! Right up before his
| eyes leaped the bright flames, and the next
| instant he was among them. There was
NO CHANCE TO STOP
Had there been warning. it would have
| taken half mile to stop that onrushfng
mass of wood, iron aud humanity, and the
train was within one hundred yards of the
| red-tongued messengers of death before
they flashed their fatal signals into the en-
gineers face. But he passed over in safety,
the first engine keeping the rails AS it
went over the bridge fell beneath it, and it
could only have been the terrific speed OF
the train which saved the lives of the en-
| gineer and his fireman But the next en-
gine went down, and instantly the deed of
death was done. Car crashed into car;
coaches piled one on top of the other, and in
the twinkling of an eye nearly one hundred
people found instant death and fifty more
were so hurt they could not live. AS for the
wounded, they were everywhere. Only the
sleeping coaches escaped, and as the startled
| and half dressed passengers came tumbling
out of them they found such scene of
death as is rarely witnessed, and such work
to do that it seemed as if human hands were
utterly incapable. 1t lacked but five min
utes OF midnight Down in the ditch lay the
second engineer, McClintock, dead, and fire
man, Applegate, badly injured On top We're
| piled the three baggage cars, one on top OF
another, like child's toy block house after
| he had swept it with his hand. Then came
the six day coaches They were telescoped
as cars never were before, and three OF them
were pressed into just space enough for one.
| The second car had mounted off its trucks,
crashed through the car ahead of it, and lay
there resting on the top of the seats, while
every passenger in the front car was laying
dead or dying underneath Out of that car
but four people
| CAME OUT ALIVE.
| On top of the second car lay the third, and
although the latter did not cover it's bearer
as completely as the one beneath, it's bottom
! was smeared with the blood of its victims
| The other cars were not SO badly crushed,
| but they were broken and twisted in every
conceivable way. and every crushed timber
and beam represented a crushed human
| frame and broken bone Instantly the air
| was flied with the cries of the wounded
and the shrieks of those about to die. The
groans of men, the screams of women
united to make an appalling sound,
and above all could be heard the agonizing
cries of little children, as in some instances
they lay pinned alongside their parents
And there was another terrible danger to be
met The bridge was still burning ana the
wrecked cars were laying on and around
the fiercely burning embers Everywhere
in the wreck were wounded and unhurt
men, women and children, whose lives
could be saved if they could be
gotten out, but whose death and
Death in a most terrible form was certain if
the twisted wood of the broken cars caught
fire. And to fight the fire there was not a
drop of water, and only some fifty able
bodied men who had still presence of mind
and nerve enough to do their duty. The
only light was the light of the burning
bridge For four hours they fought like
fiends, and for four hours the victory hung
in the balance. Earth was the only weapon
with which the fire could be fought, and so
the attempt was made to smother it out
There was no pick or shovel to dig it up; no
baskets or barrows to carry it in, and SO,
desperate, they dug their fingers down into
the earth, which long drouth had baked
almost as hard as stone, and heaped the
| precious handsful thus hardly won upon the
encroaching flames, and with this earthwork,
built handful by handful
KEPT BACK THE FOE.
While this was going on, brave men crept
underneath the wrecked cars beneath the
fire and the wooden bars which held prison
ers so many precious lives, and with pieces
of board, and sometimes their hands, beat
back the flames when they flashed up along
side eome unfortunate wretch who, pinned
down by heavy beam, looked on helplessly
while it seemed as If his death by fire was
! certain; and while the fight was thus going
! on, the ears of the workers were filled with
the groans of dying men, the anguished en-
treaties of those whose death seemed certain
| unless the terrible blaze could be extin-
guished, and the cries of those too badly
hurt to care in what manner the end were
brought about. so only it would be quick. Sc
they dug up the earth with their hands, reck-
less OF the blood streaming out from broken
finger nails, and heaped it upon little mounds
|, while all the while came the heartrending
: cry. sFor Gods sake don't let US burn te
death" But nnally victory was won, the nre
was put out after four hours of endeavor
and as its last spark died away light came
/. up in the east to take their place, and dawr
came upon scene of horor. While the fight
: had been going on men had been dying, anG
: there were not 80 many wounded to take ou1
of the wreck as there had been four hours be-
FORE But In the meantime the country hat
been aroused; help had come from Chats
. worth, Forest and Piper City, and AS the
; dead were laid reverenly alongside of eact
. other, out In the corn field, there were ready
hands to take them into Chatsworth, while
! some Of the wounded were carried to Pipe1
: City. One hundred and eighteen was the
AWFUL POLL OF THE DEAD,
, while the wounded number four times al
! many. The full tale Of the dead cannot
however, be told yet for days Chatswortt